# King Engineering Associates

King Engineering Associates is an Asset Manager based in Tampa, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** Tampa, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Tampa, FL, United States
- **Founded:** 1977
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** kingengineering.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/king-engineering-associates

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

King Engineering Associates was founded in Tampa in 1977, originally as a surveying and civil engineering consultancy serving Florida's Gulf Coast municipalities. Mike Shea joined the firm shortly after its founding and has led it since 1985, steering its evolution from a pure professional-services firm into an entity that manages and develops infrastructure assets. The firm's wealth-origin story is not tied to a single family or liquidity event; rather, it reflects five decades of reinvesting engineering-fee revenue into long-dated physical assets that the firm itself designs and permits. King concentrates on water, wastewater, stormwater, and transportation infrastructure across Florida. The firm typically pursues a design-build-operate posture — engineering the asset, shepherding it through permitting, and retaining an ownership or long-term concession stake. This blurs the line between consultant and principal investor. Key project types include municipal water-treatment plants, pump stations, reclaimed-water distribution networks, and roadway-drainage systems. Geographic concentration is nearly total within Florida, with a heavy tilt toward Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Manatee counties. Co-investors are frequently state revolving funds, county utility authorities, and regional water-management districts rather than institutional LPs. King employs roughly 51 professionals across its Tampa headquarters, with satellite project offices activated around long-duration construction sites. The firm does not operate a formal private-fund structure, preferring balance-sheet capital recycled from ongoing engineering contracts. In September 2023, the firm received a notice of intent from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to award a new reclaimed-water facility design-build contract in central Pasco County, adding to its active project inventory. No philanthropic foundation, club membership, or adjacent family-office vehicle has been publicly associated with the firm. The structural differentiator is vertical integration: King both engineers the asset and owns it post-construction, capturing fees at the front end and utility-like cash flows over the asset's life. This model is rare among US engineering firms, most of whom exit after design or construction. The firm's private, partnership-based governance and absence of outside LP capital allow it to hold assets indefinitely, which aligns with the 30-to-50-year depreciation schedules typical of water infrastructure.

## Sectors

- Infrastructure
- Real Estate
- Energy Transition & Renewables

## People

- Michael J. Shea — President

## Questions

### Does King Engineering Associates operate as a traditional asset manager or an engineering firm?

It operates as a hybrid. The firm earns revenue from professional engineering and surveying fees, but it also takes long-term ownership stakes in the infrastructure it designs and builds. This means King functions simultaneously as a consultant and a principal investor, holding water-treatment and stormwater assets on its balance sheet without an external LP fund structure.

### How does the firm source its infrastructure investment opportunities?

Deal flow originates primarily from municipal requests for qualifications (RFQs) and competitive bids issued by Florida counties, cities, and water-management districts. Because King often serves as the engineer-of-record during the planning and permitting phases, it has early visibility into projects that later require private co-investment or design-build-operate partnerships.

### What asset classes does King Engineering Associates target?

The firm concentrates on water and wastewater infrastructure — treatment plants, lift stations, reclaimed-water systems — alongside stormwater management and transportation-drainage assets. Most holdings are physical, long-lived, and regulated by state and local environmental agencies. The firm does not publicly invest in software, venture capital, or financial instruments.

### What is the firm's geographic focus?

Operations are almost entirely confined to Florida's west-central Gulf Coast, particularly Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Manatee counties. This hyper-local concentration reflects the firm's reliance on relationships with specific municipal utility directors and its deep familiarity with regional hydrogeology and permitting requirements.

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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